Thursday, August 30, 2012

Well, it's been 10 years since Backyard Ballistics has been published. During that time, I've had a lot of new ideas for projects and now, here they are! The second edition contains a ton of new stuff and new projects.

Here's a short description:

This bestselling DIY handbook now features new and expanded projects,
enabling ordinary folks to construct 16 awesome ballistic devices in
their garage or basement workshops using inexpensive household or
hardware store materials and this step-by-step guide. Clear
instructions, diagrams, and photographs show how to build projects
ranging from the simple match-powered rocket to the more complex
tabletop catapult and the offbeat Cincinnati fire kite. The classic
potato cannon has a new evil twin—the piezo-electric spud gun and the
electromagnetic pipe gun has joined the company of such favorites as the
tennis ball mortar. With a strong emphasis on safety, the book also
gives tips on troubleshooting, explains the physics behind the projects,
and profiles scientists and extraordinary experimenters such as Alfred
Nobel, Robert Goddard, and Isaac Newton. This book will be indispensable
for the legions of backyard toy-rocket launchers and fireworks fanatics
who wish every day was the fourth of July.

Friday, August 12, 2011

The winners have been selected in Chicago Review Press’s Practical Pyromaniac Clerihew Contest. The Practical Pyromaniac is a new book from William Gurstelle (Popular Mechanics Magazine’s “Pyrotechnics and Ballistics Editor.”)

A clerihew is a four line, eccentrically metered, rhyming biographical poem. Easy to write and fun to read, entrants were asked to write a clerihew that describes a famous scientist or other person, or event closely associated with fire.

The Winner:

Rudolf Diesel's
As German as measles,
But his engine stayed mobile,
So his legacy's global.

--Kelly Robinson

The Runners Up:

The Great London Fire

Destroyed St. Paul's choir.

The nave and transepts were burned to sticks

On the 4th of September, 1666.

-- Chris Kaiser

Catherine O'Leary's cow

Would probably disavow

Her role in the blaze of 'seventy-one...

Too bad the witness is Well Done.

-- Erik Stearns

Well over a hundred entries were received. It was a difficult task selecting the winners because of the number of excellent entries. Points were awarded for topic relevance, style, and cleverness.

The following entries have been singled out for Special Mention:

The Philosopher Empedocles
Thought there were four elements, and these
Were earth and water, fire and air
He was wrong, *but* they made a square.

Nick Muellerleile

Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford
Showed heat made when gun bored.
This example of friction,
a conservation of energy prediction.

Ben Brockert

Baybars, Sultan of Egypt
Into his hand cannon, gunpowder tipped.
But how many klutzes lost a foot
shootin' in the Battle of Ain Jalut?

Elissa Malcohn

Mrs. O'Leary
Hated the theory
That it was her cow
That started that row.

Yossef Mendelssohn

Thanks to William Crookes
And his love of science books,
We now have faithful records
Of Faraday’s Candle Lectures.

Roger Kilbourne

Isaac Watts
Observed a lot.
He observed that observation
Is learning's firm foundation.

Michael Hahn

Had Herostratus
Gone on hiatus,
The shrine in Ephesus
Would not be in pieces.

William Gurstelle
Spent a night in a well
'Till he found in his pocket
Stuff to make rockets

Robert Sanford

William Gurstelle
While otherwise quite swell,
For his practical pyromania
Was kicked out of Moosylvania.

Craig Wittler

William Gurstelle
Musing about Bill Tell
Traded his bow
For a little C4

Joe Lupe

William Gurstelle
Along with the flames of hell
Has provided a book barrage
To blow the roof off your garage

David Cooper

Mr William Gurstelle
May have never been on tele.
But of fires and flame,
Seems he now has some fame.

Mr Kim Chaisson

William Gurstelle
A name I know well.
His books inspire,
My garage is on fire.

Jason Goodowens

Sir William Gurstelle
Was half-way to hell
He still hasn't learnt
That pyros get burnt

Michael Dare

The mother of William Gurstelle
told her son "Write a novel that will sell!"
To her never-ending ire
Willie wrote about fire

Liz Dorman

William Gurstelle
Burns brightly and well
A master of the arts
Of incandescent farts

Samuel Stackman

William with fire,
will never tire,
to be forever lit,
with wisdoms wit.

Anonymous

Other entrants’ clerihews spanned the gamut of scientific genius from Nicola Tesla to Thomas Edison, from Tim Berners-Lee to Madame Curie. There were also clerihews written to fete and illuminate the achievements of several lesser known scientists including Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner, Claude Edward Shannon, Robert Sapolsky, and Henning Brand.

Thomas Edison
was a man of no medicine
he made artificial light
there was no more night

Jonathan Pedoeem

the caveman
was a very brave man
he invented fire
and probably the first wildfire

Michael Pedoeem

Angelina Jolie
isn't very boney
neither is she fat
Jolie is all that

gerry kessler

Mark Frauenfelder
His wife, he held her
To make things worth doing
They gave us the bOING bOING

Mark Gerl

To Robert Oppenheimer let's make a toast,
For his nuke work at Los Alamos.
Though he queasily quoted Hindu divinity,
When he saw what happened with Trinity.

Eric Constantineau

Edmund Clerihew Bentley
Should not have written frequently
Unless perhaps he failed at guessing
That slipshod scansion is entirely distressing.

Ari Multhauf

Henry Cavendish
Sadly never got his wish
To define the elements
Without any audience.

Craig Wittler

Richard Feynman was the man, or one might say, the bomb;
He was supercool like liquid helium, and his contributions live on -
Whether to the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics
Or to a little thing called the theory of quantum electrodynamics.

Backyard Ballistcs 2nd Ed

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About Me

Named to Wired Magazine’s Smart List, William Gurstelle is a bestselling author, registered engineer, and professional speaker. The author of Backyard Ballistics, Absinthe and Flamethrowers, and seven other books, he is recognized for his particular talent for making science and technology accessible, intriguing, and – most of all – fun to all readers and audiences. Having sold more nearly half a million books, he is one of the world’s most widely read authors on science and technology.
In addition, he is a contributing editor for Popular Mechanics and Make Magazine. He is a frequent contributor to Wired, Popular Science, and a book reviewer for the Wall Street Journal.
He has been heard on NPR’s Science Friday and Weekend Edition with Scott Simon, and has made numerous appearances on PBS, the History Channel and the Discovery Channel. William and his books have been profiled in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the London Daily Telegraph, Popular Mechanics, USA Today, and scores of other newspapers and magazines